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SOCI 2070
McWorld
Today’s Class
1. Defining McDonaldization2. Origins of McDonaldization 3. Principles of McDonaldization4. McDonaldization Beyond McDonald’s5. The Irrationality of Rationality?
Today’s Readings
Required1. George Ritzer, “An Introduction to McDonaldization”, The
McDonaldization of Society. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2008, 1-21.
2. Deborah Barndt, “Arch Deluxe with a Smile”, Tangled Routes: Women, Work and Globalization on the Tomato Trail. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008, 94-128.
Supplementary Reading: 1. Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Collins,
2001, 225-252. 2. George Ritzer ‘Dealing with McDonaldization: A Practical
Guide’. The McDonaldization of Society Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2008, 187-210.
Defining McDonaldization
“McDonald’s is the basis of one of the most influential developments in contemporary society. Its reverberations extend far beyond its point of origin in the United States and in the fast-food business. It has influenced a wide range of undertakings, indeed a way of life, of a significant portion of the world. And that impact is likely to expand at an accelerating rate.”
McDonaldization: “the process by which
the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world.”
Ritzer
Not Just Fast Food
Casual diningRetail businessesEducation Health careTravel and leisure Emulated on a global scale
Origins of McDonaldization
Linked to earlier social processes and social theories
Bureaucratization (Weber)Scientific Management (Taylor) Assembly Line (Ford)
Max Weber: Bureaucracy
Institutions based on rational-legal authority
1. A fixed division of labour 2. A hierarchy of offices 3. General rules that are recorded in permanent
files4. Separation of personal from official property5. Selection of personnel on the basis of technical
qualifications6. Employment considered a full-time career
Bureaucracies
Expert, technical knowledge Technical superiority StabilityPredictability
Bureaucracies
concentrate power at the toperode the capacity for spontaneous
actiondehumanize imprison humanity in an ‘iron cage’
F. W.Taylor: One Best Way
Scientific Management: Find the most efficient way of doing a job Train workers to execute the job efficiently Design the job so it can be done without
thinking (deskilling) Closely monitor and control the workers’
performance Place all decision-making responsibility in
hands of management
Henry Ford: Assembly Line
All movements are simplified Unnecessary steps or movements are
eliminated Parts are received efficiently (travel
the least possible distance) Mechanical (not human) means used
to transport car and parts
Ford and Taylor in the 1920s
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PvbG9Sjp97o http://youtube.com/watch?v=kFsBC0_Uglg
&feature=related
McDonaldization
Efficiency the optimum
method for getting from one point to another
Calculability an emphasis on the
quantitative aspects of products sold
Predictability the assurance that
products and services will be the same over time and in other locations
Control through nonhuman technology
McDonaldization
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fdy1AgO6Fp4
Beyond McD’s & Beyond AmericaMcDonald’s as a Global Icon
McD’s in Moscow; McD’s in Beijing
McDonaldized transnationals Body Shop, IKEA
McDonaldization as Governance
Working at McDonalds http://youtube.com/watch?v=gZjdouRo_qA
McDonaldization as governance
The Customer is McDonalidized
Performs tasks formerly performed by workers Bag your own groceries
Supervises workers The ‘goldfish bowl’
Do we get what we want…
AdvantagesWide range of goods and services Not tied to time and placeGet what you want when you want itIncreased uniformityStability, familiarity, and comfortRapid diffusion of innovation
Irrationality of Rationality
1. Efficiency Environmental
problems Factory farming
2. Calculability Health problems Supersize me
3. Predictability Limits creativity No choices, no
thinking
4. Control Dehumanizes
Irrationality of Rationality
”Unfettered by the constraints of McDonaldized systems, but using the technological advances made possible by them, people would have the potential to be far more thoughtful, skillful, creative, and well-rounded than they are now. In short, if they world were less McDonaldized, people would be better able to live up to their human potential.”
Ritzer